Don't change the subject, Mr Blair

Last updated at 17:36 27 September 2004

The war in Iraq is getting bloodier by the week. The British hostage Kenneth Bigley remains helpless in the hands of murderous fanatics. And even Mr Blair admits that we are now involved in a "new conflict".

So how does the Prime Minister plan to address the very real public concerns about this crisis in the war against terror?

He offers the minimum of contrition by admitting that the intelligence on which he led this country to war was "wrong".

And then he tries to change the subject. New Labour's strategy for its party conference and the months up to the next election is to focus on domestic issues such as the health service and education.

For once, Labour's attempts to spin itself out of trouble are not working. When Peter Hain said this weekend that Iraq was no more than a "fringe" issue, he had to retract his remarks within hours. And Labour delegates have resisted pressure from party officials and will debate the conflict.

Make no mistake. However hard the Prime Minister tries, he will fail to close the debate about our involvement in this war.

He didn't succeed when he appointed a tame judge, Lord Hutton, and a friendly mandarin, Lord Butler, to produce reports about the war - and they duly obliged with assessments that were respectively a whitewash and generally friendly.

No, this issue won't disappear because it defines Mr Blair, his method of conducting his government and the way in which he presents his policies.

The decision to go to war was made by a cabal of Downing Street insiders, brushing aside every doubt expressed by the diplomatic and intelligence experts, who warned that invading Iraq would encourage fundamentalist terror.

The Prime Minister sold the war to this country on the basis of the false prospectus that there were weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq presented a clear and present danger.

And once Mr Blair had decided to back the United States, he refused to consider any change in policy.

The evidence since the end of the war has shown the folly of the invasion. The number of military and civilian casualties continues to rise.

Terrorists have reduced Iraq to anarchy and the world is selfevidently a more dangerous place.

There is real public anger about the way the Government took us to war. However hard Mr Blair tries to change the subject, he will - rightly - not be allowed to do so.

Work till you drop

Yet again the Government is raising the spectre of forcing British people to foot the bill for the way its policies have ruined what used to be one of the best funded systems of private pensions in Europe.

Despite promising to implement radical reform, New Labour helped open the chasm in company schemes with its £5billion annual tax raid - had the money been invested by pension funds, experts say there would now be an additional £100billion in assets.

It has allowed the basic pension to become pathetically inadequate and looked the other way while the savings ratio - the money we set aside for a rainy day - has halved.

So who has to pick up the pieces? Inevitably it is likely to be companies and working people. Ministers have already suggested compelling workers and their bosses to save into pensions.

And now Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson is proposing scrapping the mandatory retirement age.

Of course it is right for people to work on after 65 if they wish to.

But isn't Mr Johnson's real motive to save the Government billions of pounds a year as those in jobs would continue to pay taxes and not claim pensions?